This kind of Solace
by Simple-Minded Idiot
Summary: It's really different when you're not whole. Team 7 – or what remains of them – assess things and come out with a horrible conclusion.


It's been ages...?

Partially inspired by Naruto's current opening song. (Yeah, yeah. That's where that whole "dream" came from.)

* * *

"What happened to you?" Sakura asked, her voice sounding much like a whisper. 

It had been ages since she last saw Naruto. They had both been busy. He was, after all, already Hokage and she was on her way to becoming even better than Tsunade.

She had quickly come to Konoha – she had been spending a lot of time at Rain – when she had read in a letter of Ino's to her something that concerned Naruto.

"I," Naruto started, "grew up."

"You call that growing up? You gave up your dream," she said in an accusing tone.

"I'm Hokage now." _'I got everyone else, too'_ was something that Naruto left unsaid.

He didn't need to say it anyway. Sakura got it. "Not everyone." Her voice had sounded low. It would sound rather menacing to anyone else who wasn't Naruto. Who wasn't a part of their team.

"You're the worst," Sakura said. "You... You aren't Naruto. Not the one I know."

"_He_'s the worst, Sakura-chan," Naruto said hoarsely. "He left us."

"You promised me. You _promised_ me. And you never backed out of your promise. It was the promise of a lifetime."

The Sakura back then would've cried.

But this was the Sakura _now_ and she was practically like a whole new person. She had changed.

She had hoped that Naruto would never ever change. Even if it would mean that she had to always scold him for his silly pranks.

It was in vain.

"Give me back Sasuke," she said. "Give me back Naruto."

"You already have Naruto," Naruto said. "Shouldn't that be enough? Shouldn't _I_ be enough?"

"You're not Naruto without Sasuke. You don't have Sasuke. You won't get Sasuke." _'As I am not Sakura without Sasuke.'_

Team 7 had revolved around Sasuke far too much that they'd already forgotten how it was before they didn't have Sasuke in their lives, in their hearts.

* * *

Kakashi looked at the sky from the hospital bed he was lying on. The only thing that could be seen on his face was his normal eye. His Sharingan was tucked under numerous strips of bandage. 

"It seems as if my time's up, huh?" he asked his visitor.

Gai clenched his fists.

"You haven't even tried to live yet, my youthful rival!" he exclaimed.

Kakashi faced the leotard-donning man.

"I've lived plenty," Kakashi said. "And I'm not exactly youthful right now, aren't I?"

He tried to chuckle, but found that the bandages were in his way – not quite like laughing through his mask. It came out as some sort of gargling sound.

"My hair's already gray," he continued.

He was desperate to make the mood lighter. A depressed Gai wasn't exactly what he wanted to handle right now.

"Your hair's always been gray!" Gai said in his usual booming voice.

"... So it has," Kakashi said.

* * *

"Good morning, Hokage-sama," Sai chirped as he strode inside Naruto's office. "I have some news for you." 

Naruto hummed, signaling Sai to start talking.

"It seems as if Akatsuki's on the move again," Sai said.

That wasn't new. It seemed as if Akatsuki was always on the move nowadays. Many speculated that they worked harder as they were now short of a few talented members.

"And I heard that they're sending their new recruits–" Sai continued.

Now that was something new. Naruto hadn't heard that the Akatsuki already had fresh blood in them.

"–and they're heading towards Konoha as we speak."

It was time to up their defenses again, Naruto supposed.

"I also happened to heard who the new duo are," Sai said.

Naruto felt detached when he heard the names fall off Sai's lips. It all felt so surreal.

* * *

"We meet again," Kyuubi said, "but it seems as if you've even come to exceed Madara this time. But you work for him. Humans are so odd." 

Madara had the sort of charisma and charm that nobody could resist. Sasuke was not an exception, though he was less enthralled with the man as he, too, was a Sharingan user and could, just for a small amount, resist the man.

"I've come to extract you from Naruto," Sasuke said.

"What?!" Naruto exclaimed.

Kyuubi roared in laughter.

* * *

"Sasuke!" Sakura's shrill scream pierced the air. "Naruto!" 

She reached for the two of them – lost in each other again, leaving her all alone as always – but was stopped by a huge sword. A familiar sword. She stared at Sasuke's partner who was grinning.

"I'm afraid that you can't disturb him right now," Suigetsu said. "You'll just have to deal with talking to me right now."

Sharp teeth glinted in the sunlight.

Sakura clenched her fists bit her lower lip.

* * *

"Condolences," Sasuke said out of nowhere. 

His hand was reaching for Kyuubi's snout. The beast didn't even try to escape or move away. It seemed as if it was more than willing to get extracted from Naruto. As if it didn't care if Naruto would live to see another day or not.

"For who?" Naruto rasped.

He could feel his life being taken away. Was this what Gaara felt like when Shukaku was being taken away from him?

Or perhaps this kind of pain that he was feeling right now was greater. At least Gaara wasn't close acquaintances with either Sasori or Deidara.

Sasuke was Naruto's best friend. Always would be whether Sasuke or Naruto or anyone else liked it or not.

"Kakashi," Sasuke said.

"Bastard!" Naruto wheezed. "Did you kill him?!"

"I visited him today. He said to tell you, 'good-bye'. You and Sakura."

"_Welcome back, Sasuke."_

"_You're dying." _'I won't be here for long.'

"_Yeah, I know." A chuckle. A real one. "But at least I got to see you one last time."_ 'That's understandable.'

_Sasuke nodded._

"_Tell Naruto and Sakura I said good-bye."_

"_I will."_

"_I had always... you... best."_

"_... I know."_

Sasuke would live for Itachi. He would die for Naruto. He would kill for Sakura.

Sasuke would always listen to Kakashi, even if he didn't seem like it.

"I wonder if he knew that you'd be joining him soon enough, too," Sasuke pondered, his hand feeling Kyuubi's nose.

"I won't," Naruto said, gritting his teeth – a sure sign of his determination, "I won't give up!"

He struggled to stand up.

Sasuke was right in front of him. The one person that had been part of his reason to live. He couldn't just let Sasuke go away.

He needed the guy. Sakura needed the guy. They weren't themselves without him. They weren't a team.

They had already lost Kakashi, their precious, precious teacher, but surely they could still salvage Sasuke. _Their_ Sasuke.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted as loud as he could.

When he fell to the ground and closed his eyes, he could swear that he touched even the slightest bit of skin. And for the second time in his life, Naruto felt as if he had truly reached Sasuke.

After that, he felt numb. Unbelievably, undeniably numb. He ceased to care.

* * *

"I see that you've gotten yourself bruised," Sasuke remarked. 

More than bruised was what had happened to Suigetsu.

"You got it then?" Suigetsu asked.

Sasuke nodded. Kyuubi was living alongside Orochimaru.

"Let's go back," Sasuke said.

The two of them started walking.

"Hey, Sasuke," Suigetsu spoke after a while of walking, "you have water building up in your eyes."

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto outright gaped at the newcomer. Haruno Sakura, for the first time in her whole life, _stared_ at a member of the male population. 

It was _him_.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke," the boy said, "and I just came back to Japan from England yesterday."

"Well then, Sasuke-kun, you just go over and sit between Sakura-chan and Naruto-kun," their teacher said with a smile on his face.

And it seemed as if out of the three of them – perhaps even four or five, given those odd signals coming from Hatake-sensei and that upperclassman Sai – Sasuke had been the only one unable to remember.

* * *

Comments will be loved. Really, they will! I mean, it's been ages and all, so, er, I'm kinda worried with how this one turned out and all. The grammar, the nonexistent plot, and the pulled-out-of-thin-air characterizations. 


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